Elliott Gould Smirks Through Latest Role

May 2, 1986|By Clifford Terry, Chicago Tribune

In motion pictures throughout the `70s and early `80s, Elliott Gould played characters that emitted a self-conscious cuteness. Moving over to television, Gould once again trots out his special brand of artificial whimsy Sunday in Vanishing Act (9 p.m., WTVJ-Ch.4, WDZL-Ch.34).

Gould plays a transplanted police officer from the Bronx who has taken a job in an unnamed ski-resort town in the Rockies (the movie was shot in Banff, Alberta, Canada), which means he resorts to flying in corned beef sandwiches and chocolate syrup to make egg creams.

The storyline involves a San Francisco accountant, Harry Kenyon (Mike Farrell, best known as B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H ), who reports that his wife of one week has disappeared.

Ever-skeptical, Gould`s lieutenant surmises it was a lovers` quarrel, then offers some leering advice: ``Given the nature of your honeymoon, you can probably use the rest.``

Shortly afterward, a local priest (played by Fred Gwynne in an apparent progression from Munster to monsignor) informs Kenyon he is sheltering a woman, (Margot Kidder) whom he has been counseling and who claims to be the lost bride.

The husband drops over and, of course, insists he has never seen her before.

In fairness, Vanishing Act - written by Richard Levinson and William Link (Columbo, Murder, She Wrote ) - is rather entertaining in a rainy- afternoon sense, and the periodic twists are very likely to sucker you in, too.

If only Gould would get rid of that built-in smirk. And stop pleading for ``a little seltzer.``